The Daily Signal reported:
- Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling
today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a
cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to
the couple they denied service.
“This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” Avakian wrote. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”
In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.
“This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights,” the Kleins, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed, wrote on their Facebook page. “According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech.” >>more HERE
- This is unbelievable! Remember Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Christian bakery owners in Oregon who were prosecuted by the state for refusing to participate in a same-sex marriage by baking a wedding cake? Friday, Brad Avakian, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor & Industries Commissioner, upheld the ruling that the Kleins have to pay the lesbian couple $135,000 for a long list of alleged damages including: “acute loss of confidence,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “weight gain,” and “worry.” Give me a break. In my opinion, this couple should pay the Kleins $135,000 for all they’ve been through! Even more outrageous is that Avakian has also now ordered the Kleins to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs. This is an outright attack on their #freedomofspeech. A senior attorney with the The Heritage Foundation was absolutely right when he said, “It is exactly this kind of oppressive persecution by government officials that led the pilgrims to America.” Hear what the Kleins have to say in this video and article. Pray for them as they appeal the ruling and for other Christians experiencing discrimination because of their faith right here in “the land of the free.”
The stuff that this same sex couple claimed is just absurd. They probably know it and is why they wanted the court to silence them.
